This took me WAY too long to get to - I usually get some stuff done when the spouse is out of town and she finally took a couple days - the length didn't help, and neither did my tepid response to 8 1/2 back in July, but when it was over I found that I had greatly enjoyed it. It did take a couple nights as it's easy to doze off in the chair on this kind of film at midnight, but surprising, by the 2nd night, I was so taken I roused myself at one point and got my 2nd wind to finish the last 2 hrs.
This is a romance of sorts on the scale of Gone with the Wind in France - A woman (probably a prostitute although I never considered it during the film) is pursued by several actors, lowlifes, and high society types. There is a great deal of acting from the stage, where one character puts in a stellar performance as a mime. I didn't realize the extent to which this was considered one of the greats of French Cinema until afterwards.
There's some other very interesting trivia in here. All her suitors are based on actual historical figures, and of course, the idea this was started in Vichy France and completed after the Allies liberated it makes for some good stories - the idea that it was going to have to be two 90 minute films under Vichy rules, and the fact they added some already shot stuff hoping they'd be able to complete it under Free France, and how one character had to be reshot because he was accused of collaboration - even the lead actress got in trouble and got her head shaved and incarcerated for a few months because she had an affair with a Luftwaffe officer in Paris.
But at it's core, it's a poetic and powerful film - shot on an epic scale, with scenes outside the Boulevard of Crime (really, it's named after the theaters that showed a lot of crime stuff) packed full of extras and festivals and outdoor performances. This is one of those films I would get a Blu-Ray of for the special features or spend time on the commentary for, and I may just to do it because I'm sure there's some great stuff in there. As it turns out there's a lot of good stuff right now on the Criterion Channel for this one.
One last note, apparently the translation isn't quite great - it's not so much Children of Paradise as it is Children of the Gods - (roughly) - the Gods are the reference to the theater viewers in the upper balcony seats, so it's almost like Children of the Theater or something - anyways - I turned out to enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would so that's why we do this!
